Concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) in postmortem human tissues: effect of environmental CO exposure

We studied how carbon monoxide (CO) is distributed within the human body through quantitation of CO concentrations in postmortem tissue samples from fatalities including possible CO exposure. Stored, frozen tissues were diced, sonicated in water, and 0.01-8.0 mg wet weight (ww) tissues were incubated with sulfosalicylic acid in CO-purged, septum-sealed vials. CO released into the headspace was quantitated by reduction gas chromatography. Mean tissue CO concentrations (pmol/mg ww) from subjects diagnosed to have no known CO exposure (control, N=14), died from fire (N=13), and CO asphyxiation (N=7), respectively, were: adipose (2;13;9), brain (3;13;65), muscle (15;97;297), heart (30;99;371), kidney (22;432;709, lung (54;690;2638), spleen (73;1366;3548), and blood (162;2238;5070). Carboxyhemoglobin concentrations were 1.4%, 25.2%, and 69.1% of total hemoglobin, respectively. We conclude that measurements of CO concentration in a variety of tissues can be used as markers for the degree of exogenous CO exposure and the identification of possible causes of death.     

Coverture and Dignity: A Comment

This short comment challenges efforts to expand the notion of a dignity taking to traditional legal structures, like those identified with “coverture.” It suggests that the inequalities of gender oppression are better understood as forms of “slow violence.” It also suggests how difficult it is to imagine and to institute remedies for wrongs rooted in long histories and in powerful structures of socialization.     

Constructions of Effectiveness and the Rationalization of Counterterrorism Policy: The Case of Biometric Passports

This article argues that counterterrorism effectiveness is a distinct, discursive construction that politicians use to offer a rationalization of measures adopted under conditions of inherent uncertainty. Even in the face of multiple limits of knowability, decision makers need to offer “rational” justifications complying with persisting expectations of “evidence-based” policy and sound deliberation in modern societies. This article develops a new perspective on the political role of counterterrorism effectiveness highlighting the symbolic importance of knowledge claims and prevailing standards of modern rationality. It illustrates its arguments through a case study on the justification of biometric passports as an effective counterterrorist tool.     

Social Policy by Other Means from a Comparative Historical Perspective Continuity and Change in Nineteenth-Century Belgium (1800 ‒1920)

ABSTRACT

While social policies in the past are “by other means” if compared to traditional welfare states, historians have successfully established that they were much more conventional in their own time. Moreover, welfare states are historically grown constructs often still containing many pre-existing elements of precisely such social policies by other means, for example non-state provision. Belgium is an excellent example. Historically both nineteenth-century poor relief and early twentieth-century social insurance were mixed private/public forms of provision and funding. Today the Belgian welfare state still retains fundamental aspects of non-state provision not usually associated with “conventional” welfare states in the core OECD.     

Die Selbstbehauptung und Selbstgefährdung des Friedens als Herrschaft des Rechts

Peace is conceivable only as a legal order. According to Hans Kelsen, a legal order is by its very nature a ‘coercive order’. Thus, peace and coercion are not mutually exclusive, but refer to each other in the concept of law. In this contribution, we elaborate and problematize the paradoxical relationship between coercion and peace in theoretical and historical perspective. For this, we differentiate between arbitrary force and legal enforcement in the context of world-order politics. While we argue in favor of peace through law enforcement, we also emphasize the element of arbitrariness in the concept and historical formation of law. This is to say that the stabilization of peace through legal coercion goes hand in hand with its simultaneous destabilization. The text unfolds this dilemma with reference to the evolution of the theory and practice of legitimizing the use of force from past to present. We argue that the dilemma cannot be overcome, but it can be mitigated through the creation of a rule of law, which allows for a reflexive treatment of the tension between peace and coercion.